Schoenberg – Moses und Aron
Franz Grundheber; Andreas Conrad; SWRSO Baden-Baden und Freiburg; Sylvain Cambreling
Hanssler Classic 93.314

Arnold Schoenberg’s self-authored libretto for his dodecaphonic biblical spectacular Moses und Aron (the latter protagonist is intentionally respelled so that the title contains exactly 12 letters) calls for the on-stage appearance of rape, murder, butchery and camels. (Take that, Verdi!) Though he intended the work to include three acts, the composer completed only the first two from 1930 to 1932. In essence however the work is closer in spirit to an oratorio and is often effectively presented as such. Recordings of Moses have been slow but steady following the composer’s death in 1951, with about a dozen available in various formats. What has kept this opera in the shadows (it was not staged in this hemisphere until the Metropolitan Opera presented it in 1999) has less to do with the lurid scenario than the extensive and hugely demanding choral writing – the most recent staging in Wales saw the chorus rehearsing the work for some 18 months.

I consider the true stars of this new recording to be the members of the elite EuropaChorAkademie who have thoroughly mastered the score with spectacular results. In the lead roles the magisterial Franz Grundheber makes a lasting impression in the half-sung, half-spoken interpretation of the tongue-tied Moses and is effectively paired with the forceful Heldentenor of Andreas Conrad as his eloquent spokesman Aron. The French conductor and new music specialist Sylvain Cambreling leads the SWR radio orchestra (sadly scheduled to be dissolved in 2016) in a finely balanced and lucid account of the score miraculously cobbled together from no less than four different performances in as many venues during a 2012 European tour.

It’s an idea so obvious that you have to wonder why the market isn’t already flooded: a DVD that features a world-class soloist going through a major concerto almost bar by bar, explaining the problems and challenges, and discussing ways of addressing them. DVDs of masterclasses are occasionally issued, but I don’t know of anything quite like the Learning from the Legends series (learningfromthelegends.com), which has recently started its catalogue with two 2-DVD sets featuring Lara St. John playing and dissecting two of the most popular violin concertos in the repertoire: the Bruch G Minor and the Mendelssohn.

The Bruch set came my way recently, and it’s absolutely fascinating and engrossing. DVD1 features St. John playing the concerto with pianist Eduard Laurel, but with the work broken up into short segments, often of only a few bars. The violin music appears at the foot of the screen, and St. John discusses just about everything you can think of before repeating the section: technical challenges and problems; interpretation; performance issues; tips and advice; fingering; bowing; practising and learning the solo part. The first movement dissection takes 45 minutes; the second 33 minutes, and the finale 43 minutes.

DVD2 has the uninterrupted performance of the concerto by St. John and Laurel, a piano-only accompaniment, and a selection of short help sections from St. John: The Importance of Finding a Teacher; Practice Philosophy; and eight short Technical Exercises.

St. John’s relaxed and friendly presentation-style is perfect, and her commentary always apposite and perceptive. The camera work is almost entirely close-up, with every possible angle of fingering and hand position shown clearly.

It’s absolutely indispensable stuff for student violinists, and offers fascinating and revelatory insights for anyone interested in how concert performances are built. Sheet music for St. John’s own edition of the solo part is available for download through the publisher’s website.

Quebec’s Quatuor Fandango was formed six years ago as a student ensemble at the Conservatoire de musique in Gatineau. Uarekena, their debut CD, presents an attractive program of short works and some excellent ensemble playing (ATMA ACD2 2707).

The disc opens with Comme un Tango and closes with Carnaval, two short pieces by Patrick Roux, the quartet’s teacher and mentor in Gatineau. Dušan Bogdanović’s Introduction and Danse was inspired by the music of Eastern Europe and Sérgio Assad’s title track reflects his Brazilian heritage.

Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite is followed by Leo Brouwer’s Paisaje cubano and Jürg Kindle’s Berimbao, the latter named after the African instrument that consists of a steel string struck with a stick. There are some particularly interesting sound effects in the Brouwer and Kindle pieces – and yes, you can play the guitar with a pencil!

The recorded sound is warm and resonant, the balance excellent and the playing terrific. The group rightly points out that the guitar quartet is a relatively recent addition to the list of performing ensembles, and the repertoire continues to grow, both in original compositions and arrangements and transcriptions. This CD is a welcome addition to the quartet discography, and a debut disc to be proud of.

Given that the outstanding Hyperion series The Romantic Violin Concerto has mostly highlighted lesser-known composers, the selection of Max Bruch for Volume 17 (CDA68050) may, at first glance, seem a bit surprising. The huge popularity of the Concerto No.1 in G Minor, however, overshadowed the two later concertos, both in D minor, which Bruch wrote for the instrument.

The Violin Concerto No.3, Op.58 is the main feature here. It’s a long work, with absolutely gorgeous music throughout, and a particularly lovely slow movement. The melodies are perhaps less immediately memorable than those in the G minor concerto, which may help to explain why the work never really established itself, but it’s easy to see why Bruch grew so annoyed and frustrated when violinists always preferred to play the earlier concerto.

If there is a bit of a surprise here, it might be the choice of the Scottish Fantasy, Op.46 as the accompanying work, instead of the even less-heard and perhaps more obvious Violin Concerto No.2; still, it’s such a lovely and familiar work that it’s hard to complain, and it shows, perhaps, the difference that strong melodies that stay with you after just one hearing can make to a work’s impact.

The English violinist Jack Liebeck is in superb form in both works, with Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra providing excellent support.

Joshua Bell joins the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields as soloist and music director in performances of the two solo violin concertos by J. S. Bach on his latest CD, Bach (Sony Classical 88843 08779). The Concerto No.1 in A Minor, BWV 1041 and the Concerto No.2 in E Major, BWV 1042 are both given bright, sympathetic readings with beautiful playing from all the participants. The slow movements are heartfelt without ever being overplayed, and the finales have a genuine dance feel to them.

It’s hard to understand now how anyone could ever have felt that any of the Bach solo Sonatas & Partitas needed a piano accompaniment, but in the mid-19th century both Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn did just that, Schumann supplying a piano part for all six works, and Mendelssohn – who was mainly responsible for the revival of Bach’s music in the first place – writing an accompaniment for the great D minor Chaconne. The Chaconne is included here with the Mendelssohn accompaniment, but Bell takes it a step further by using an orchestral arrangement of Mendelssohn’s piano part that he created with the Philharmonia Orchestra violinist Julian Milone. Bell openly admits that the Bach original cannot be improved upon, but appreciates that it does give him another way to experience the work and the opportunity to play it with his friends in the Academy. It’s an interesting experiment, and one that is repeated with the Gavotte en Rondeau from the E major Partita, this time with Schumann’s accompaniment getting the Milone treatment. A lovely reading of the Air from the Orchestral Suite in D Major completes an excellent CD.

The title of violinist Daniel Hope’s new CD, Escape to Paradise: The Hollywood Album (Deutsche Grammophon            4792954), is a bit misleading. Hope’s focus is on composers who escaped from Hitler’s Europe to the warmth of the Hollywood movie scene, but there’s non-Hollywood music here from pre-and post-war Germany – including a Korngold work from 1908 – as well as non-escapee music from second-generation Hollywood composers like John Williams and Ennio Morricone.

Hope and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Alexander Shelley display a big Hollywood tone right from the opening notes of Miklós Rózsa’s Love Theme from Ben Hur, and carry the same style into the major work on the disc, Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto Op.35; the concerto was built around themes from Korngold’s Hollywood movie scores. It’s a fine performance of a lovely work.

The remainder of the CD is given over to 14 short pieces, most of them arrangements; five are for duo or chamber ensemble, including three that feature members of the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin. Ex-Police frontman Sting sings his own lyrics (replacing Berthold Brecht’s!) to a song from Hanns Eisler’s Hollywood Liederbuch, and German singer Max Raabe contributes a flat (unfortunately in both meanings of the word) performance of Kurt Weill’s Speak Low.

The best tracks are those for soloist and orchestra, including the themes from Rózsa’s El Cid, Morricone’s Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, Williams’ Schindler’s List and Thomas Newman’s American Beauty. The disc ends with a slow, low-key and really quite odd solo violin arrangement of As Time Goes By.

The CD is a strange mixture in many ways; some moments resonate less than others, and the vocal tracks in particular seem more like intrusions than contributions, but Hope’s playing is stylish and of a very high standard throughout. Editor’s Note: Alexander Shelley succeeds Pinchas Zukerman as conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in September 2015. 

Terra Incognito, featuring the Colombian-born guitarist and composer Arturo Parra, is the debut CD from the new Montreal music and book publishing company La Grenouille Hirsute/Shaggy Frog Productions (LGH1301).

The sub-title of the CD is Seven sound portraits, Parra having spent time with seven men and women from different parts of the Americas before composing seven original pieces “at the request of their subjects” in response to what he had heard. The title, Terra Incognito, refers to the phrase that used to indicate unknown territory on early maps and globes. More on that in a minute.

I didn’t quite know what to expect from this disc. Parra has extensive experience with contemporary mixed media compositions for guitar, and, we are told, “…has to date invented over fifty extended guitar techniques and forms of guitar/vocal expression, and continues to expand the expressive range of his instrument through his sonic explorations.” Not that you would know that from this CD: from reading the promotional material I expected a far more edgy, experimental approach, but it’s mostly riffs and improvisations on standard classical guitar etudes, patterns and techniques, with the occasional extraneous sound – clicks here, a swoosh there – and some fairly standard guitar sound effects – string slides, percussive knocks and the like.

The relevance of the Terra Incognito title is explained by the album’s representing “a vast fresco of a grand journey through unknown lands… a journey that ultimately leads [listeners] back to their home port.” The language throughout the entire package – and particularly in the almost impenetrable booklet notes on the seven track titles – is, to put it mildly, opaque. Here is Parra expounding on his view that every portrait is also, in some way, a portrait of its author: “Each of us is, to another, a two-way mirror watching us watching ourselves while we believe we are watching someone else; a mirror in which we stare into infinity, entranced by our own features, while the mirror stares at itself believing it is staring at us.” Um… OK. “Would I have written the portraits in full knowledge of how naked they would leave me? Don’t know, can’t say.” The entire booklet notes are of a similar nature, either at the far edge of perception or simply pretentious – take your pick – but it doesn’t really matter; the point is that they bear absolutely no relation to the end product and to what you hear.

Don’t get me wrong. Make no mistake: this guy can play. Parra is an extremely talented and proficient guitarist and composer, and the pieces here show an advanced technique and a refined awareness of the instrument’s range and colour palette. There is, however, little sense of the individual pieces being portraits of anything; the whole CD, far from feeling like a journey, feels more like a series of improvisational – albeit high quality and beautifully played – studies.

The recording quality is excellent, and there is a great deal to enjoy on this disc. I just have a big problem believing that it actually does what it claims to do.

Perla Barocca – Early Italian Masterpieces
Rachel Podger; Marcin Swiatkiewicz; Daniele Caminiti
Channel Classics CCS SA 36014

This beautiful disc is a pearl indeed. From the lyrical, improvisatory opening of G.B. Fontana’s Sonata 2 to the final exuberance of Bertali’s Chiacona, Perla Barocca is a delightful exploration of 17th-century Italian violin repertoire, as interpreted by three luminescent players.

Among my personal favourites on this CD are Pandolfi Mealli’s Sonata 6, in which the composer’s theatrical eccentricity and lyricism are effortlessly captured. Isabella Leonarda’s Sonata 12 is simply gorgeous, and the fiery passagework of Marco Uccellini’s Sonata overo Toccata “detta la Laura rilucente,” isn’t just impressive, it’s refreshingly expressive as well. Particularly in Biagio Marini’s Sonata 4, Rachel Podger and her colleagues make use of an extraordinary range of tonal colour and volume, as well as numerous special effects described in writings of the time but rarely heard nowadays in performances of this repertoire. Girolamo Frescobaldi is represented here with the familiar keyboard Toccata 1, in which harpsichordist Marcin Swiatkiewicz displays his interpretive mastery, and another Toccata for “spinettina e violino.” Podger, Camini and Swiatkiewicz give Dario Castello’s Sonata 2 one of the most thoughtful and inventive renditions I’ve ever heard, providing inspiration for a fresh look at this much-recorded piece. Their perfect exploitation of expressive device, creative pacing and snappy virtuosity give the impression that the three of them are actively collaborating with Castello as they go; and so it is with the rest of the music on this CD.

A must-listen.

A Royal Trio – Arias by Handel, Bononcini & Ariosti
Lawrence Zazzo; La Nuova Musica; David Bates
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807590

In 1719, Handel had been told by the newly established Royal Academy of Music in London to recruit a company of singers, of the calibre of the castrato Senesino. Such singers were the mainstay of the Academy, as were Handel and the Milanese cellist and composer Giovanni Bononcini.

Add a third composer Attilio Ariosti of Bologna, and you have an operatic power house in London which, along with Lawrence Zazzo’s genius as a countertenor, is the inspiration for this CD. Indeed, Zazzo’s skills as a countertenor are immediately displayed with his vigorous interpretation of Handel’s “Rompo I lacci” from Flavio. More sedate but no less intense is his performance of “Cosi stanco Pellegrino” from Bononcini’s Crispo.

Handel’s music features in ten of the 18 tracks on this CD, “Va tacito” from Giulio Cesare being an entirely suitable selection, not only due to Zazzo’s enthusiastic performance but because of the spirited accompaniment from the woodwinds and horns of La Nuova Musica. It is a sharp contrast to the thoughtful, sighing setting of “Tanti affani” from Handel’s Ottone, which follows.

Despite Handel’s reputation, one of the most moving recordings on the entire CD is Ariosti’s “Spirate, o iniqui marmi” from Coriolano, conveying Coriolano’s anguish at his wrongful imprisonment. In this case, it is the strings which combine with Zazzo’s voice to create the doleful atmosphere.

In fact, Bononcini and Handel both end the CD with a flourish, the former with “Tigre piagata” from Muzio Sevola and the latter with “Vivi, tiranno” from Rodelinda. Each piece showcases the sheer skill of Lawrence Zazzo and the demands placed on his voice.

Beethoven – Diabelli Variations
Stewart Goodyear
Marquis MAR 455

Stewart Goodyear has already demonstrated his maturity and artistic mastery of Beethoven in the complete sonata recordings and his marathon performances of the works. This current CD establishes him as one of the premier Beethoven interpreters today.

The Diabelli Variations “amused Beethoven to a rare degree” and were written in “a rosy mood” which dispels the belief that Beethoven spent his later years writing in complete gloom. These variations tease us with incredible humour and “funny themes.” Substitute the syllables ha-ha, hee-hee to the music in Variation 10 which Alfred Brendel so aptly named “Giggling and neighing” in his book Music Sounded Out and it will guarantee a smile and laugh while listening to this extraordinary opus. This is joyful, uplifting music and Goodyear has the formidable technique and astute sense of structure to be able to switch from one character to the next. He clearly defines the unique personality and mood of each variation.

The extra-musical images and literary allusions of the work come alive in Goodyear’s command of the extreme contrasts and articulation of the musical motifs. He brings to life tender moments and violent, disjointed musical excursions while sustaining a focus from the beginning to the end of the work. The love and joy of playing Beethoven is evident in every nuance and breath of Goodyear’s performance. The sound of the recording, tempo and timing flows naturally in its expressive and colourful journey.

This is an excellent recording and is highly recommended. I look forward to Stewart Goodyear recording all of Beethoven’s Variations.

Beethoven – Complete Works for Cello and Piano
Jean-Guihen Queyras; Alexander Melnikov
Harmonia Mundi HMC 902183.84

Having already collaborated on chamber music by Brahms, Kodály, Debussy and Poulenc, Canadian-born cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov – two established Harmonia Mundi artists – have now turned their attention to music by Beethoven in this splendid two-disc set featuring the complete works for cello and piano.

The music was composed over a 20-year period, from 1796 to 1815. The two sonatas Op.5, were a result of Beethoven’s association with the musical court life in Berlin which not only included the cello-playing King Frederick Wilhelm II (nephew of, and successor to, the flute-playing Frederick the Great) but also the Duport brothers – both cello virtuosos. The Queyras-Melnikov pairing is a sublime one, their playing elegant and polished, with a wonderful sense of momentum throughout. The first disc also includes the delightful Variations on Mozart’s Ein Mädchen oder Weibschen from The Magic Flute and See the Conquering Hero Comes from Handel’s Judas Maccabeus.

It was almost 11 years later that Beethoven returned to the cello/piano combination with his Sonata in A Major Op.69, long regarded as one of his most renowned in the genre. The mood is dignified and majestic and the equal partnership of the artists results in a wonderful cohesion of sound, with Queyras’ warm rich tone perfectly complemented by Melnikov’s solid performance. Also included on this disc are the variations on Mozart’s Bei Männern welche Liebe fuhlen from The Magic Flute and the two sonatas Op.102 completed in 1815. Queryas displays a particular tenderness in the slow movement of the second sonata before the two embark on the robust fugal finale, thus bringing the set to a most satisfying close.

Well done, Messrs. Queyras and Melnikov – it’s a classic case of outstanding repertoire superbly played, and we can’t ask any more than that.

Tchaikovsky; Grieg – Piano Concertos
Stewart Goodyear; Czech National Symphony; Stanislav Bogunia
Steinway & Sons Records 30035

These performances of the warhorses by Tchaikovsky and Grieg are on fire. There is an energy and passion from both the remarkable Stewart Goodyear and the incredible Czech National Symphony that makes this a must-listen-to CD for pianists. Goodyear speaks of the collaboration as “dancing” and the performances certainly weave long musical lines and pulsating shapes like dance choreography. I like the tempos in the Tchaikovsky concerto. Both pianist and orchestra refrained from romantic over-indulgence and kept the music flowing in grand, sweeping gestures. This concerto often suffers from affectations and egocentric playing. Goodyear’s impressive technique was used with integrity to interpret the music. He coaxed beautiful tone poems and colours from the piano. He embraced the lush harmonic worlds of Tchaikovsky and made the rhythms dance in balletic forms. His incisive articulation and trills that border on the phenomenal will keep listeners on the edge of their seats. The second movement sparkles effervescently at a quick tempo but the slower sections are tender and carefully nuanced. The concerto ends in a blaze of virtuosic display and fireworks from both piano and orchestra.

The Grieg concerto was impeccable. It sang in lyric colours and the ensemble between pianist and orchestra was exemplary. The tempos and timings breathed and evolved freely while creating naturally flowing phrases. The lyrical and sensitive second movement sang with luminous tone and expressiveness. The third movement was crisp and performed with scintillating precision.

It is so refreshing to hear these often over-done concertos played with such love, mastery and musical integrity. Bravo to Stewart Goodyear and the Czech National Symphony, as well as to Steinway for this excellent CD.

Bruckner – Symphony No.3
Orchestre Métropolitain; Yannick Nézet-Séguin
ATMA ACD2 2700

This Bruckner Third is another triumph for Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Wisely using the original 1873 version, Nézet-Séguin provides a well-paced, convincing performance of this massive symphony, with subtle tempo variations and shifts, controlled crescendos, and strategic silences. For Bruckner, it’s a good thing that we have learned to accept silence in musical works. In his pauses, I hear space for concert hall reverberation, time to ponder a profound question, or maybe a rest on an alpine hike!

Nézet-Séguin and his recording team have balanced the orchestra admirably, blending seamless strings, organ-like winds and bold but restrained brass. In the sprawling first movement he projects both the opening pathos and the later emotional pastoral song, where the orchestra’s strings are particularly warm and expressive. Some of Bruckner’s most arresting writing happens in transitions and interpolations, as in a passage more than a minute long over an A pedal note, or in a well-played trumpet explosion in the development section.

The strings shine again in the sublime slow movement, which shows Bruckner’s originality as a melodist who makes digressions and then picks up the thread again. The scherzo incorporates a ländler (Austrian folk-dance) as the trio section (anticipating Mahler), while the finale has an unusual passage where a polka combines with a wind chorale, exquisitely-played. Overall, I recommend this disc highly: crank up the volume, perhaps listen a movement at a time, and enter Bruckner’s unique sound world!

Stravinsky – Firebird 
Various Composers – Les Orientales
Les Siècles; François-Xavier Roth
Actes sud ASM 06

Last month I enthused over this group playing the reconstructed score of Le Sacre du Printemps as heard at the riotous premiere in Paris on May 29, 1913 (Actes sud ASM 15). Les Siècles is an orchestra of young musicians culled from the finest French ensembles. They have access to and play instruments from all periods and so are perfectly able to replicate the palette of the Ballets Russes orchestra at that time. We listen with new ears.

To conductor Roth’s credit, as one listens to these Stravinsky scores the rhythmic energy, regardless of the tempo, makes it very clear that these are ballet scores. In his later revisions and suites, Stravinsky had his eye on the concert hall. Here we hear exactly what the composer had in his mind over 100 years ago when he was in his late 20s and an enfant terrible in the making with Firebird, although by Le Sacre he was pretty well there. In these performances, we hear for the first time the interplay between instruments, particularly the winds, adding unsuspected nuances to the mix.

To open the program, Roth and Les Siècles are on their mettle with a reconstruction of another Michel Fokine ballet of the day, the exotic divertissement Les Orientales, including music by Glazunov, Sinding, Arensky and Grieg.

An inseparable aspect of these discs is the astonishingly detailed and translucent sound of these vital live performances, truly a “you are there” experience that will ignite the most jaded listeners. You will not hear performances to match these anywhere else. If you care to read the Le Sacre review it can be found at thewholenote.com.

These audiophile recordings belong in every audio dealer’s demo room and of course, in your collection if you have any regard for Stravinsky.

Prokofiev – Romeo & Juliet
Mariinsky Orchestra; Valery Gergiev
Mariinsky MAR 0552

This magnificent production, recorded live in March 2013 replicates the January 1940 Russian premiere of Romeo and Juliet choreographed by Leonid Lavrovsky. The mise-en-scène is delightfully dated but every aspect of this production is as virtually flawless as a live performance can be. Principal Dancer and soloist Diana Vishneva is Juliet with Principal Dancer Vladimir Shklyarov as Romeo. Ilya Kuznetsov is Tybalt and Alexander Sergeyev is Mercutio. The power and energy generated from the pit is astounding and the picture is breathtakingly opulent. Enthusiastically recommended!

The 1940 production had a twisted history. The often stormy encounters between composer and choreographer and others began in November 1934 when Prokofiev visited Leningrad to consider with dramatist Adrian Piotrovsky the subject for a new ballet. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was selected. By January 1935 Prokofiev had drafted a scenario for a five-act production and proffered this to theatre director Sergey Radlov, who suggested some dramatic themes for the production. By May a four-act scenario was agreed upon … with a happy ending! In 1941 Prokofiev wrote that “There was quite a fuss at the time [1935-36] about our attempts to give Romeo and Juliet a happy ending; in the last act, Romeo arrives a minute earlier, finds Juliet alive and everything ends well. The reasons for this bit of barbarism were purely choreographic: living people can dance, the dying cannot.”

From 1936 on, Romeo and Juliet became an artistic football as well as an incidental political one. Dismissals and some arrests, including Piotrovsky and Dimanov, who was the official from the Central Committee who had endorsed the happy ending, were not uncommon. Out with Dimanov and the happy ending! These vehement battles continued unabated right up to and beyond January 1940. In the meantime, in December 1938 the ballet with the tragic ending (as recorded here) had seven performances at the Regional Theatre in Brno, Czechoslovakia. All’s well that ends well…

Metropolis
Harringon/Loewen Duo
Ravello Records RR7889

New Canadian saxophone music is taking flight recently, much as a result of the commissioning efforts of Winnipeg-based saxophonist Allen Harrington. Prairie composers Gordon Fitzell, Michael Matthews and Diana McIntosh are featured on this disc with pianist Laura Loewen.

Harrington’s debut recording begins with a bang: literally, with the saxophone screeching and popping whilst the pianist hits the strings with mallets inside the instrument. Fitzell’s Metropolis is a kind of sonic experiment, or lexicon of extended techniques for both instruments; the piece is always in motion, despite its fragmented form and sparse texture.

I find the crystalline sound and static drama of Sudbury composer Robert Lemay’s modernism more successful: this composer has written many works for saxophone – and also uses every technique available – but Oran always has a clear motivation.

Harrington and Loewen show their years of collaboration successfully in the more traditional works on the disc: Srul Irving Glick’s Sonata and Matthews’ The Skin of Night highlight their sensitivity to lyrical passages – his alto saxophone sound has a warm intensity in the middle range and she has a dramatic and articulate touch on the piano.

Being the only Canadian to place at the Adolphe Sax Competition (in 2006), Harrington is a strong soloist. But it is his collaborative efforts with Loewen that are impressive; the recording (done at the Banff Centre) masterfully captures both instruments in equality. The saxophone and piano repertoire will continue to grow as this duo continues to inspire Canadian composers.

American Chamber Music
James Ehnes; Seattle Chamber Music Society
Onyx 4129

In addition to the great European tradition of chamber music, American composers have also made significant contributions to the genre, beginning with the works of Arthur Foote in the 19th century. American chamber music is alive and well 150 years later, and this recording is a fine representation of repertoire from the 1930s and 40s with music by Copland, Ives, Bernstein, Carter and Barber performed by Canadian violinist James Ehnes and musicians of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

While some of the music on this CD might not be all that well known, it’s all worth investigating. Copland’s Violin Sonata from 1943 is a study in contrasts, with its buoyant opening movement, a restrained march and the rhythmical finale performed here with much panache by Ehnes and pianist Orion Weiss. Leonard Bernstein was still a student at Harvard when he composed his Piano Trio in 1937, its exuberance very much the music of a 19-year-old prodigy. The most familiar piece on this recording is surely Barber’s String Quartet, if only because of the famous Adagio, most often heard arranged for string orchestra. Here, the warmly resonant strings further heighten the movement’s elegiac mood. Equally elegiac is the brief Largo for violin, clarinet and piano by Charles Ives. Insurance broker by day and composer on the weekend, Ives was very much an individualist. His approach to music was distinctly American, and I liken the introspective mood of this piece from 1901 to those stark urban landscapes by Edward Hopper created 30 years later. Elliott Carter’s Elegy for viola and piano from 1943 is marked by a romantic conservatism not seen in his later style.

So it would seem that during the 1930s and 40s, there was more going on musically in America than the jitterbug and big bands and this CD proves it admirably. Kudos to James Ehnes and his group from Seattle for bringing to light some treasures that most certainly deserve greater exposure.

The Transcendentalist
Ivan IlicHeresy Records 015 (heresyrecords.com)

When it comes to new music the average music lover, including myself, is in an unknown territory (or downright ignorant) and that can provoke hostility and aversion at times. This new disc by Ivan Ilic, a distinguished American pianist of Serbian descent, does an immeasurable service to smoothen the road to acceptance by the back door, so to speak.

It’s a masterstroke to devise a program with the likes of Cage, Feldman or Wollschleger by tracing them backwards to “fall on branches descending from Frédéric Chopin.” It’s also all the more surprising – says Mr. Ilic – that Scriabin, one of the greatest innovators in the early 20th century, took Chopin as a point of departure. And this is the point at which this remarkable journey begins.

Scriabin’s Prelude Op.16, No.1 indeed sounds a bit like a Chopin Nocturne with a charming little melody developed nicely and it’s over in two minutes. Fine… everyone is happy about that, but our pianist now presents an early piece by John Cage, Dream (1948), and we immediately sense the relationship to Scriabin. The hesitant fragments moving at an even pace like moving in and out of our subconscious, laying out slowly a wonderful oriental landscape, sometimes interrupted by deep and disturbing chords… yes, indeed, we feel the connection, but also experience the departure into a new world with a mesmerizing, hypnotic effect.

“Transcendental meditation?” The phrase here takes on a new meaning under the magic hands of Ilic who is guaranteed to hypnotize you like no other into the mysteries of another universe, but at the same time plays Scriabin’s gorgeous D-flat major Prelude Op.31, No.1 so beautifully that you can perhaps endure the vicissitudes of this here universe.

Hosokawa – Orchestral Works 2
Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Orchestre National de Lyon; Jun Märkl
Naxos 8.573276

Toshio Hosokawa is in some way a visual artist disguised as a composer. The three pieces on this collection of orchestral music bear a striking similarity of form; they remind me of St. Exupéry’s descriptions of his childish drawings of boa constrictors who swallowed elephants. The author never succeeded in conveying how fearsome these images were to him; Hosokawa’s music, on the other hand, delivers moments of awe and terror, bordered by serenity and contemplation.

Each work opens with a sustained unison B flat, shimmering and pulsing; eventually each arrives at a final unison elsewhere. Hosokawa rejects artifice and architecture, preferring the organic. He depicts development, origins, growth. The first piece, Woven Dreams, traces an imaginary passage from the womb. Blossoming II and Circulating Ocean are reflections on the natural world. In the liner notes he describes the signature unison openings as fluid, amniotic or aquatic. One hears birdsong and water droplets, earthquakes and storms.

Though Hosokawa’s forms have curved edges, his orchestral effects often jar. He discovers new dissonances through note bends and microtonal juxtaposition. Deep booming percussion nearly overwhelms. At times his orchestration reminds me of Schnittke, at others of Mahler. He will use the orchestra as a huge macabre organ and then exploit individual instruments for passagework.

Unlike his senior compatriot, Toru Takemitsu, Hosokawa chose to embrace rather than distance himself from his own culture. He often uses canonic melodic entries, often cascades in the treble winds. He refers to this technique as Oibuki, featured in a style of Japanese court music called Gagaku. Where Takemitsu was repelled by the militarism he witnessed as boy, Hosokawa worries his culture is too ready to adopt external models rather than grow from its own roots.

Two different orchestras supply the music, under the able direction of Jun Märkl, whose parents bridge the east-west musical divide, a German violinist for a father, his mother a Japanese pianist.

Silent Partner
John MacMurchy (johnmacmurchy.com)

Very often I receive a CD with all original material and it raises a warning flag. Will there be melodic and harmonic content that will stand a lot of re-listening? In this case I have no such doubts. Silent Partner is a thoroughly enjoyable program of original compositions played by groups of varying sizes and including contributions by Bruce Cassidy, flugelhorn and EVI, pianist Mark Kieswetter, guitarist Dan Ionescu, Ross MacIntyre, bass, Daniel Barnes, drums, and Alan Hetherington, percussion. They all make valuable contributions to the success of this recording.

As I mentioned the songs are all MacMurchy originals. He has a beautiful sound on clarinet and his compositions, whether ballad or up-tempo, are little gems. I particularly enjoyed the somewhat melancholy “The Stars Were Out Of Order” and “A Good Day To Be Happy.” In fact listening to this music helps to make it a good day. A superior recording by superior musicians. I highly recommend this CD.